Why do they always have to "confirm" the specs of any new Apple device? Do they think Apple is somehow publishing false specs? I mean, they specifically stated it has an A5 in it. Why does iFixit need to "confirm" that?

It's not about that at all.. It's for people like me who have an interest in electronics. To see 'how they did it', where did they put the logic board, etc..

They really are very well designed and iFixit shows us how well, without breaking our own devices

Why do they always have to "confirm" the specs of any new Apple device? Do they think Apple is somehow publishing false specs? I mean, they specifically stated it has an A5 in it. Why does iFixit need to "confirm" that?

Bear in mind there were some, uh, reality-challenged posters around here who were *convinced* Apple was lying and the iPad Mini had an A4 chip. Their reason? One of the images used in the presentation of the A5 had an A4 part number around the edge... So faced with either a) an error in an image or b) a massive conspiracy by Apple that would include lying in both a press conference AND all of their promotional materials thus leaving them open to a huge fine for false advertising these people went with... b!

Your statement makes zero sense. Do you not understand that the iPad "Mini" is intended for people that want a smaller tablet?????? This seems to be a foreign concept to many people in this forum. How is an iPad 2 refurb a better choice for someone that is shopping for an iPad Mini? Will the iPad 2 fold up somehow?

My god you are defensive. I've never saw someone get so defensive over the perceived criticism of a product. He or she basically said what you said, that it's for those who want an iPad mini. And then he or she gave their honest opinion, suggestion that if that's not the case then he thinks in, his or her opinion that a refurbished iPad 2 is a better choice.

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15.5" Vaio: 2.4Ghz Core i5, 4gb of Ram, Radeon 5470 512mb $860 Aug/2010. A mac with similar specs, and a weaker GPU would have cost me around a $1,000 extra, so I've been Apple free since Aug 2010.

How many times are people going to say this? It's not specifically a better choice because it's bigger.

Yes, that was one reason I don't have a iPad, the big iPad does not fit in a pocket and is almost as big as a Macbook Air. Nice to have all that screen space but if you are going to cary something that size, may as well go with a "real" computer

They should add a couple more speakers and have 'L' and 'R' follow the orientation.

Cool idea. Let me jump on that and jump the shark at the same time.
1. Let's your idea adaptive stereo if it doesn't already have a name. Four speakers that act as stereo pairs and are sensitive to orientation.
2. Let's throw in quadraphonic because that's a good logical next step. You'd essentially have (most of) the hardware to do it with #1. But here, when the data is available, each speaker gets its own sound to drive. Some older music could be found that was mixed for four speakers. Otherwise it could open up new ways to remix music. But this would be particular useful to app developers who could really separate sound output in interesting and immersive ways (we'd get a lot of "spinning" effects, and 3D games with well mixed sound locations).
3. Let's float the idea of being able to use speakers as mics and vice versa. Because of the iPad platform's size, this could be useful to repurpose hardware that's not being used. I'm not sure if anybody does this, though it's technically possible. There may be perfectly sound reasons why that's the case.

Let's throw in a couple middle ground options:
4. Mono speaker on top and bottom, but when held in landscape they function in stereo as left/right. This is is essentially your idea but 2 speakers instead of four, and we're doing away with the poorly separated stereo that we'd have in portrait mode.
5. Mono speaker on top, stereo on bottom. So you have crappy stereo in portrait, and better stereo in landscape. Only three speakers to drive total.

Some of these gets into "retina" territory, of Apple creating their own standard, justifying it with pseudoscience, and slapping a catchy name on it. Let's call them "Cocclea" audio, though it's quite unappetizing.

Okay, now back to reality. First, does doing any of these presents a very minimal change to the sound profile. We're dealing with tiny, tinny drivers encircling a waif of a device. Quadrophonic speakers in the 80s were big things that filled rooms with diverse, separated sound. A far cry from what any tablet is kicking out today.

Second, bigger problems need to be navigated here. There are a few ideas listed here, but Apple is limited by A) size/weight, B) cost/competition, and C) fragmentation concernts (they strive to present an unfragmented device ecosystem to allow for coherent developer and content/media support). Apple has shown excellent sensitivity to all of these, which need to be balanced.

I could ramble on here, but I would hope that apple would continue to balance these concerns. As much a single device bullet point could be nice, it disrupts the ecosystem lineup. So if Cocclea sound is coming, I'd want it deployed uniformly across iOS (at least iPad), and ideally Macs and headphones.

Short of that, adaptive stereo could be cool and is already supported by developers and content providers. But again, I want a coherent lineup: even though the iPad mini speakers are positioned on the wrong side, why does the mini get a bullet point that is denied the iPad 4?

I just recently bought some speakers for my tv and they said to space them 6-9 feet apart to allow the sound to fully spread out or something. That does t look like a 6-9 foot gap on the mini

The way to set up stereo speakers is to make an equilateral triangle with the listener and each speaker at one point. So if you place the speakers 6 feet apart that means you should be 6 feet from each speaker. It real life it depends on the size of the room and you might have to compromise.

The true audiophile would re-design his room so that he could get proper speaker placement. But most people don't care much about sound quality to do that.

The equilateral triangle rules is a good start. Then after that think about the distance from the wall(s) and especially from corners

OK, bottom line. The mini iPad has two speakers but Apple was correct to NOT call it "stereo". It is just "two speakers". The device is incapable of stereo sound reproduction. It can't come even close to an equilateral triangle.

Why is it no one ever mentioned the mono speakers on an iPad before now? Is it because of the Amazon ad actually drawing attention to it?
Nobody complained before. Seems like a lot of people who don't have a clue jumping on the bandwagon... ANY bandwagon just to have a say.